The Buenos Aires International Architecture Biennial marks 40 years of history this year, across 20 editions. As one of the most important architecture gatherings in Latin America, it will celebrate this anniversary with an edition featuring around 100 architecture firms, 15 exhibitions, 50 conferences, 40 international guests, and representatives from more than 55 cities worldwide, in a free, open program running for five weeks. From September 22 and throughout October, as part of Buenos Aires' Design and Architecture Month, conferences will be held, exhibitions will open, installations will be inaugurated, and activities will take place at specific points around the city. Under the theme HABITAR (INHABIT), the Biennial will also host a six-day forum with 2026 Pritzker Prize winner Smiljan Radić, culminating in the presentation of this edition's awards.
The Buenos Aires Architecture Biennial has accompanied cultural, urban, and social transformations since 1985, when it was founded by Argentine essayist and cultural promoter Jorge Glusberg. As an international platform, it brings together architects, designers, urban planners, artists, researchers, students, and architecture enthusiasts to share projects, experiences, and new perspectives on contemporary spatial analysis and production. This anniversary edition's theme is HABITAR: a broad umbrella for a subject that cuts across different ways of practicing architecture. Through architecture, urbanism, and landscape projects from a range of geographies and contexts, the Biennial seeks to offer a wide-ranging, cross-cutting look at the experience of inhabiting and its collective dimension. In the curatorial vision, it is an invitation to reflect on the many ways people build their relationship with the planet, cities, territories, and communities.
The selection of projects and activities spans realities from major metropolises to more remote and extreme territories, from domestic spaces to the infrastructures that sustain collective life. The Central Exhibition, which takes its title from the overarching theme, will be housed at the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, showcasing representative work from more than 100 national and international architecture firms. This is complemented by the exhibitions Habitar lo Extremo (Inhabiting the Extreme), on Antarctica, developed by the collective 6044 Sur, and Iberá, and Habitar la Naturaleza (Inhabiting Nature). The Centro Cultural Recoleta will host the European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture / Mies van der Rohe Awards 2026, alongside the exhibition Form Follows Fiction: Six Inquiries, curated by Vladimir Belogolovsky, and a site-specific installation resulting from the Architexture open call held by the Institut Français d'Argentine.
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Latin America in Focus: This Month in Architecture, Environmental Design, Social Infrastructure, and PracticeProgramming extends through the Recoleta neighborhood with an exhibition lineup that includes: César Pelli and Diana Balmori. Architecture of a Shared Library, at the Museo del Libro y de la Lengua of the Biblioteca Nacional; Bustillo 1929-1939. Tiempos de modernidad (Times of Modernity), at Casa Victoria Ocampo; Madera: Mirando al Futuro del Habitar (Wood: Looking to the Future of Inhabiting), curated by Galia Solomonoff, Jeannette Plaut, and Marcelo Sarovic at the Museo Nacional de Arte Decorativo; as well as special exhibitions from Argentina, Belgium, Georgia, Italy, Sweden, and Venezuela taking place at MARQ. The cultural circuit will run throughout Buenos Aires' Design and Architecture Month, forming a walking route through 15 exhibitions, in addition to ten associated programs held at institutions in other parts of the city.
Finally, the Biennial's International Forum will take place from Monday, October 5 through Saturday, October 10, featuring this year the participation of Chilean architect Smiljan Radić. Over six consecutive days, more than 50 free conferences will be offered at the Auditorio Amigos del Bellas Artes, selected to foster the exchange of knowledge and experience on an international scale. The Forum will close with the presentation of awards recognizing the cultural contributions of professionals, firms, and institutions. In this edition, the Premio Bienal a la Trayectoria (Lifetime Achievement Award) will go to Marta Minujín for her urban interventions, while the remaining 2026 Biennial Awards will be granted by an international jury, recognizing the projects and firms participating in the HABITAR central exhibition, as well as the speakers taking part in the International Conference Forum. The program will also include the presentation of the Premio Hydro XX Bienal a la Mejor Fachada en Aluminio and the Premio Tersuave al Color en la Arquitectura, and the event will host the awards ceremony for the sixth edition of the Premio Oscar Niemeyer para la Arquitectura Latinoamericana (Premio ON), featuring a special conference by its winner.
Other recent news from Latin American architecture includes the completion of the Lola Mora Cultural Center in San Salvador de Jujuy, Pelli Clarke & Partners' first cultural project in South America, and the last one designed by César Pelli, as well as the selection of a winning proposal for the Museo Nacional (MuNA), led by SANAA in collaboration with Estudio A0, Caá Porá Arquitectura, Jerome Haferd Studio, and Taller Capita. In less encouraging news, two earthquakes were recently recorded in the region, in Colombia and Venezuela, drawing international attention and collaboration to the reconstruction process.
